Herb Butter Roasted Turkey & Gravy

Image: Roasting pan filled with a baked turkey on top of vegetables alongside a ramekin filled with turkey gravy.

Description: Roasted turkey has been a holiday fixture on our dinner table for as long as we've celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. Here is my version of our classic family recipe!

Yield: Turkey serves 15 people. Gravy serves 6-8 people, pictured is only a small amount of the gravy

Ingredients:

• 1 whole turkey, 12-14 pounds (Mine was 13 pounds)

To stuff Inside turkey:

• 1 onion, peeled and quartered

• 1 lemon, quartered

• 1 apple, quartered

• 1 whole sprig fresh rosemary

• 3 sprigs fresh thyme

• 1 sprig fresh sage

Turkey Bed (Vegetable Cooking Rack)

• 4 stalks of celery, halved

• 1 whole onion quartered

For the herb butter:

• 1/2 cup (about 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

• 6-8 cloves garlic , grated

• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced

• 1 ½ teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced

• 1 tablespoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon fresh sage, minced

• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon old bay seasoning

For the Turkey Gravy:

• 4 cups Turkey Broth (or Vegetable Broth)

• Drippings from roasted turkey

• 1/2 cup of cornstarch + 1/2 cup water, for thickening

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• Salt & Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Prepare the Turkey:
Thaw turkey if needed: When starting with frozen turkey, I’ll typically transfer the frozen turkey to the fridge to thaw 4 days before I’m planning to roast it.

Remove the thawed turkey from the fridge and let it rest on the counter for approximately 1 hour before roasting to bring it closer to room temperature.

Adjust your oven rack so that you will be able to place the turkey in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a separate container, mix all the ingredients for the herb butter together until combined and set aside.

To a large round roasting pan, arrange the “Turkey Bed” ingredients listed to form a vegetable rack for the bird to rest on during roasting.

Remove turkey from packaging and remove the neck and giblets from the inside the cavities of the bird. Some folks reserve the turkey neck and/or giblets to make turkey gravy but I don’t typically do that. Use paper towels to pat the turkey dry. The skin will need to be very dry for the butter rub to stick to it easier.

Season the cavity of the turkey with salt and pepper. Stuff it with the “Stuff Inside Turkey” ingredients listed above.

Rub the herb butter all over the turkey. Use your fingers to loosen and lift the skin above the breasts (on the top of the turkey) and smooth some of the herb butter underneath. Tent your roasting pan with foil, being sure not to completely close the foil. I’ve found that securing the foil to the long sides of the roasting pan while leaving both smaller sides of the pan fully open works best. You need good air flow during roasting and don’t want to steam the turkey.

Roast the Turkey:
Roast at 350 degrees F for about 13-15 minutes per pound, or until internal temperature (inserted on middle of thigh and breast) reaches 165 degrees F internal. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, turn the temperature up to 375 and take the foil off to let the turkey brown and the skin crisp a bit. For my 13 pound turkey, roughly 3 hours and 15 total roasting time worked great.

Allow turkey to rest for 20-30 minutes before serving or carving. I typically just keep the bird whole and cut off pieces as I plan to eat them rather than carving the whole bird into sections, however if you want to carve your turkey, check out this quick, helpful video from thekitchn.com that shows how to carve a turkey.

Make the Gravy:
Reserve any drippings and juice remaining in your roasting pan to make turkey gravy. The easiest way I have found to remove the drippings is to remove the turkey briefly and set on parchment paper, and then you'll be able to easily pour the drippings from the roasting pan to the pot. The vegetable bed, stuffing ingredients, and the basting with additional turkey broth will provide flavorful pan dripping for the turkey gravy.

To the same pot with the remaining turkey stock used for basting, add the turkey drippings from the roasting pan, and the soy sauce. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, then reduce head to medium.

In a separate dish, whisk together the cornstarch and water to make the thickening agent for the gravy. Stir this cornstarch slurry into the cooking turkey broth, whisking continuously until the mixture is smooth and has thickened.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, then remove to a serving dish.